Thursday, April 17, 1975. The fall of Phnom Penh.

Khmer Rouge cadres marched into Phnom Penh, forced all residents out of their homes, marched them into the countryside, and began mass murders.

Around 2,000,000 Cambodians would die during the Cambodian genocide which only ended when the Vietnamese Army conquered Cambodia during the Cambodian Vietnamese War.

A CIA spy inside the North Vietnamese government inner circle informed the US Embassy in Saigon that the North would not negotiated, which was pretty obvious by this point anyway.

The last flight of the RAAF out of Vietnam took place, thereby taking a total of 270 Vietnamese civilians to Thailand.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 16, 1975. Ford denounces Congress.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 94th Congress, Egypt, Gerald Ford, USSR, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Saturday, April 12, 1975. Eagle Pull.

US ambassador John Gunther Dean stepping off Marine Corps helicopter in Thailand.

Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians.  Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.

Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."

The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.

Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland

Josephine Baker died at age 68.

Last edition:

Friday, April 11, 1975. The looming end for Cambodia and the NVA takes the Spratlys.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Cambodian Civil War, China, Gerald Ford, North Vietnamese Army, Operation Eagle Pull, People's Republic of China, Spratly Islands, United States Marine Corps